This is from Shelby Livingston writing at Business Insurance:
Out-of-pocket spending on inpatient hospitalizations increased 37.3% in the years following passage of the health care reform law, a new study shows.
From 2009 to 2013 among those receiving health coverage through the private sector, total out-of-pocket spending, also known as cost sharing, on hospitalizations grew from an average $738 to $1,013, according to a study published Monday by JAMA Internal Medicine.
The study conducted by researchers with the University Of Michigan at Ann Arbor examined claims data compiled by the Health Care Cost Institute for about 7.3 million hospitalizations of adults enrolled in employer-sponsored group or individual market health plans who were hospitalized over the four-year period. ...
“We found that the growth in cost sharing was driven primarily by increases in the amount applied to patients’ deductibles, which rose by 86%, and by increases in coinsurance, which grew by 33% during the study period, rather than by copayments,” according to the study.
Coinsurance related to hospitalizations increased from $518 in 2009 to $688 in 2013, and the amount applied to patients’ deductibles rose from $145 in 2009 to $270 during the four-year period. ...
